Life's an Illusion

Leigh Kelly RN ADN trained at the Auckland Hospital. For two decades she has focused her energies on senior citizens, serving in leadership roles in long-term care wards in Kenepuru Hospital (Wellington) and Greenlane Hospital (Auckland).

During this career commitment she majored in care for people with dementia. She became increasingly concerned at the use of chemical restraints to change and modify behaviour. Frequently this course of action did not work. Leigh's work in this field confirms that more often than not the opposite of the desired outcome results.

With the restructuring of hospital-based care in Auckland she saw the opportunity top branch out into the private sector. This resulted in purchasing a rest home in the city for people with dementia. This enabled Leigh to:

* explore further why chemical restraints (sedatives) were not working
* introduce a bodywork therapy program along with other holistic health practices
* discover a common response in each person - an underlying feeling of powerlessness
* learn that people who were loved, valued, respected and acknowledged no longer exhibited many so-called inappropriate behaviors

In essence, people with dementia just want to be treated like everybody else. This powerful discovery led to this, her first book. Through this medium, and through her public presentations, Leigh encourages careers of all kinds to look firstly at themselves and to strive for better alternatives.

We can no longer keep doing what we have always done and expect different results. Universal principles always work. These very principles can and will enhance relationships with everyone we meet.